1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sound direction estimation apparatus and a sound direction estimation method.
2. Description of Related Art
With the advancement in robotics technology, robots having artificial intelligence have been developed. These robots are expected to have faculty in recognizing a command given by a person or faculty in understanding surrounding circumstances. An example of surrounding circumstances is the direction of a sound source. Regarding a sound direction estimation technique employed by a humanoid robot, a sound direction estimation apparatus described in JP-A-2010-281816 is known.
The sound direction estimation apparatus described in JP-A-2010-281816 includes sound signal input means for inputting a sound signal, correlation matrix calculation means for calculating a correlation matrix of the input sound signal, and eigenvector calculation means for calculating an eigenvector of the correlation matrix using the calculated correlation matrix. The eigenvector calculation means calculates the eigenvector using the correlation matrix of the input sound signal and one or more predetermined correlation matrices.